Minor League Schedule: 6/24/12

Bradenton was rained out yesterday. They will make up the game on July 1st. Tim Alderson was originally scheduled to go yesterday for Altoona. He was moved to Monday and replaced by Shairon Martis. The GCL Pirates and both DSL teams are off today. Indianapolis won their seventh straight game last night. Both Bradenton and West Virginia started their second half this week. The league records reset after 70 games and at the end of the year the winner from the first and second half meet in the playoffs. If the same team wins both halves, the team with the second best overall record makes the playoffs. A full recap of yesterday’s games can be found here.

Jeff Locke will make his 14th start of the season today. He has pitched a total of 77.2 innings, allowing 78 hits, six homers, 16 walks and he has struck out 72 batters. Jeff went six innings in his last start, giving up one run on eight hits, with no walks and eight strikeouts. Batters are hitting .267 against him on the season, .198 from the left side and .294 from the right side. In five home starts this year, Locke is 4-1 2.56 in 31.2 innings.

Phil Irwin will make his eighth start for Altoona tonight. He has also pitched once in relief and made a rehab start with Bradenton. As a starter with Altoona, Phil has pitched a total of 39.1 innings, with an 0-4 4.58 record, allowing 47 hits, six homers, seven walks and he has 24 strikeouts. In his last start on 6/13, Irwin gave up four runs on seven hits in five innings, striking out a season high seven batters. His last outing was in relief of Jeff Karstens, who was making a rehab start. Phil pitched two scoreless innings, with three strikeouts.

Colton Cain will make his 11th start of the season tonight. He has pitched a total of 44.1 innings, allowing 43 hits, seven homers, 15 walks and he has 33 strikeouts. He has made three starts since returning from a month long absence due to a right groin strain. Colton is 1-1 6.35 in 11.1 innings over those last three starts. He is holding batters to a .250 BAA, with a surprisingly high .309 average from left-handed batters. On the road this season, he is 0-2 8.59 in four starts.

Zack Von Rosenberg will make his fourth start of the year today. He went four innings in his first start, allowing an unearned run on two hits, one walk and he struck out one batter. He followed that up with six runs allowed on eight hits and three walks in four innings. In his last start, Zack went 5.1 innings, allowing one run on four hits with five strikeouts. He started the year in extended Spring Training, working on his fastball command down in the zone.

Joely Rodriguez will make his second start of the season today. In his first game, he went four innings, allowing two runs on three hits and five walks with three strikeouts. He pitched just two games last year, missing the rest of the season with an elbow injury. This is his third year pitching for State College, although he started 2010 in the Gulf Coast League and threw just four late season innings with the Spikes. Joely went 2-2 4.21 in 51.1 innings in 2010, walking nine batters and striking out 28.

John Dreker

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.